Cubs Rally to Tie White Sox in 10th

The Cubs rallied for three runs in the bottom of the 10th to tie the score, but the winning run was left stranded at 3rd, as the White Sox and Cubs played to an 8-8 Selig Special at Dwight Patterson Field at HoHoKam Park this afternoon in sunny and warm Mesa.

box score

Ted Lilly got the start for the Cubs, and went six strong innings (82 pitches - 60 strikes, 5/10 GB/FB). He allowed four runs on seven hits, with two walks and 3 K, but had only one bad inning (the 4th), where he allowed three runs on a lead-off walk, a double, and three singles.  But then Lilly settled down and retired the last seven men he faced, including one on an outstanding running catch by Felix Pie in right-center to end he 5th. 

Lilly also allowed one run in the top of the 1st, but it wasn't his fault. Alfonso Soriano took an up-and-out route when he should have run a post-pattern, allowing Pablo Ozuna to reach third on a line-drive that was misplayed into a triple to start the game. Ozuna came around to score on an RBI single by Juan Uribe, but Ozuna never should have been on base in the first place.

Otherwise, Lilly looked solid, and appears to be ready to use his last start (presumably next Thursday) as a final tune-up for the regular season.

Down 4-0, the Cubs could do nothing with White Sox starter Javier Vazquez through five innings (5.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, and 5 K).  

But then the Cubs bats woke up in the bottom of the sixth, when with one out, Derrek Lee lined a triple into the RF corner (Lee hit the ball hard three times today, with all three balls hit to the opposite field), Aramis Ramirez lined a double down the RF line (scoring D-Lee), Kosuke Fukudome walked,,Geovany Soto lined a two-run double into deep right-center (good to see Soto hit the ball hard), and Felix Pie slapped an RBI single on a 1-2 pitch into left-center to tie the game and finish the day for Vazquez.

Kerry Wood relieved Lilly in the 7th, and Woody looked great, throwing a 1-2-3 12 pitch inning with two strikeouts (both swinging) and an F-9.

Bob Howry worked the 8th, and although he did allow a single and hit a batter, he also had a strikeout, a pop up to the catcher. and an easy 6-3 grounder. 

Kevin Hart entered the 9th with the game locked 4-4, but gave up an opposite-field line-drive HR to Juan Uribe that gave the Sox a 5-4 lead.

But then the Cubs came back in the bottom of the 9th against reliever Boone Logan, scoring the tying run on a lead-off double smashed down the left-field line by Ronny Cedeno, a wild pitch, and a sac fly to deep right by Alfonso Soriano.

The White Sox appeared to blow the game open in the top of the 10th, scoring three runs off the hapless Scott Eyre. The lefty allowed two doubles, two singles, and a walk before finally getting the third out, and he looked like crap doing it, too.  .

With much of the crowd having departed in the wake of Eyre's putrid outing, the never-say-die Cubs rallied for three runs of their own in the bottom of the 10th, thanks to some shoddy fielding by Jermaine Dye in RF.

Fukudome led-off with an infield single to deep short, and then Eric Patterson worked a walk, bringing up the tying run.

Henry Blanco looped a pop fly behind second base that Dye lost in the sun, allowing the ball to drop for a single, loading the bases.

After Felix Pie hit into a 1-2 FC, Ronny Cedeno drew a bases-loaded walk to force in a run, and then Matt Murton smashed a line-drive to the warning track in RF that skipped off Jermaine Dye's glove for a two-base error (Murt should have gotten credit for a sac fly RBI, but he apparently did not), allowing Blanco and Pie to score the tying runs, and sending Ronny Cedeno to third. Cedeno probably could have scored, too, but since there was only one out, 3rd base coach Mike Quade decided to play it conservative.

So with Cedeno on third representing the winning run and Murton on second, Casey McGehee struck out swinging, and PH Sam Fuld grounded out 6-3 to end the game in a tie, as both teams apparently had run out of available pitchers, plus the White Sox had a 90 minute bus ride back to Tucson, and you don't want to get back too late or you have to deal with long lines at the restaurants.

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